DENVER – Former state Rep. Jon Keyser, the rumored Republican favorite for Colorado’s U.S. Senate nomination, found himself under attack Tuesday night during the first televised debate among eight candidates in the race.

The debate aired live on 9NEWS with moderators Brandon Rittiman and Kyle Clark fielding questions to eight candidates who at times refused to answer.

“It appears the folks at home here really want to talk about national security, but none of you do,” Clark said after several people dodged his question.

There was common ground. Everyone said they would support Donald Trump if he wins the presidential nomination, although no one seemed happy about the prospect.

Jerry Natividad, a prominent Denver businessman, said Trump was better than what’s on the left.

“The truth of the matter is that I’m not pleased with Donald Trump, and I actually don’t support Donald Trump,” he said. “He’s divisive. He’s absolutely shallow. He brings absolutely no substance to this race. And I don’t think he would be a great president, to be honest with you.”

Two of the candidates came out in support of a woman’s right to have an abortion: El Paso County Commissioner Peg Littleton and Jack Graham, former athletic director at Colorado State University.

Graham, who was a registered Democrat more than a year ago, also said he’d push for hearings on President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court.

“We are picking a fight that we have already won. The Senate is controlled by Republicans,” Graham said. “We are coming across as the party of obstructionists.”

Littleton said she’s “pro-life” but doesn’t want to push her morals on others.

Keyser, a 34-year-old combat veteran, got into an early conflict with Colorado Springs businessman Robert Blaha, who was quoted as saying Keyser is “a nice young kid who isn’t qualified to be in Senate.”

Blaha stepped away from the comment, blaming the media and thanking Keyser for his service. But Keyser didn’t let it drop.

“When you said those words, frankly I took offense to that,” Keyser said. “I took offense to that. And you know what? When you said that my military service doesn’t count . ”

“I never said that, Jon. That was something that your team came up with,” Blaha interrupted. “I never said anything negative about your service.”

Keyser, an Air Force Academy graduate, said that while Blaha was writing books about leadership, he was leading troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Later in the debate, Keyser said he is the only candidate with a record of being a fiscal conservative.

Almost everyone else tried to respond at once.

Term-limited El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn asked Keyser how many years he served in the Colorado House. Keyser resigned his seat after one year to run for Congress.

“I want to find out how many budgets has he actually balanced,” Glenn said.

Keyser was later asked about his reputation of being the establishment candidate.

“I’m proud of the fact that we have a very wide spectrum of Republicans, conservatives, that are now getting behind my campaign,” he said, naming former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, former Gov. Bill Owens and former congressman Tom Tancredo among his supporters.

“You did list two establishment guys and Tom Tancredo,” Clark quipped before moving on to the next question.

Whether Keyser got the better end of these exchanges is up for debate, but one thing is certain, he got the most airtime in a debate where several candidates barely got a word in edgewise.

Former Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier was asked whether Aurora’s Muslim neighborhoods needed to be patrolled and secured as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has called for at the national level.

“No, I don’t think so at all,” Frazier said. “As someone who represented the third-largest city in our state, I embraced diversity.”

State Sen. Tim Neville was asked about his decision to literally shoot with a gun a copy of The Gazette in response to a recent editorial criticizing him.

“I believe we actually have a little bit of a light touch to that and showed them the importance of the Second Amendment,” Neville said. “And of course the ridiculousness of their comments.”

When asked to name their favorite Democrat in office, almost everyone refused to do so.

Littleton said she had to give Gov. John Hickenlooper credit for coming out against a ballot measure that would create a state-run health care system.

Blaha said Jack Graham.

“I’m disappointed by that,” Graham said, saying the candidates had agreed not to attack one another. “I would ask you to go back and revisit that comment.”

–

Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

(Photo: Facebook/Jon Keyser)